BOULDER — The 2024 Nobel Prize for small miracles goes to Phil Loadholt. CU’s offensive line coach spun a patchwork quilt into an iron curtain in what … eight weeks? Six?
“When Joe (Moore) was evaluating offensive linemen, particularly high school kids, he didn’t want to watch their film from September,” longtime collegiate coach Greg Hudson told me by phone this past Friday. “(He) wanted to see them in October. The point was that, ‘They’re not (totally) playing together yet.’ But those were (lines) that were playing together for four years. I didn’t know how these guys (at CU) were going to get five guys to play together who’d been together for five months.”
But they have. Over roughly 150 days, the Buffs’ big guys under Loadholt, a first-time, first-year offensive line coach, transformed from perfect strangers to pure muscle and mesh. Consider this: A Cincinnati defense that came into Boulder averaging almost 2.5 sacks per game managed just one at Folsom Field back on Oct. 26. All-world quarterback Shedeur Sanders was taken down only eight times in three league tilts last month. No. 2 got sacked 16 times in three October contests last fall.
“They’re better than last year,” chuckled Hudson, the former Notre Dame defensive coordinator and ex-offensive line coach at Cincinnati and UConn. “They’re a better line. Their talent level is better.”
And Hudson’s done his homework. The longtime coach is one of 14 voters who’ll select the semi-finalists and finalists for The Joe Moore Award, presented annually to the best offensive line unit in major college football. He’s been looking for weeks at cut-ups of CU film, evaluating Loadholt’s crew on six criteria: toughness, effort, teamwork, consistency, technique and finishing.
“I think the ones that were returning … how many guys came back?” Hudson asked me.
“A center, basically, who didn’t really start much last year, and another interior guy,” I countered. “And that’s pretty much it.”
“If you’re going to have a returning guy, you’d like it to be the center or the left tackle,” he replied. “From there, I can fill in the rest of the gaps.”
The Buffs landed the best high-school left tackle in the country in Jordan Seaton, then filled in the rest of the gaps, for the most part, with upperclassmen. Grizzled vets.
Right tackle Phillip Houston, a junior who Pro Football Focus has graded out as CU’s best blocker (68.7 overall), came to Boulder with 23 collegiate appearances under his belt. The guards who play next to Seaton on the left side of the formation — Tyler Brown, a senior, and Justin Mayers, a grad student — played 24 games and 35 games, respectively, before joining the Buffs.
“The threat of what their skill is like on the perimeter, and just the increased performance of Shedeur, that can help the line out,” Hudson said. “Because they can cause defenses (to say), ‘We’re not going to blitz like crazy when they can just throw it to that superstar (Travis Hunter) — it would be stupid.’ You’ve got (to have) eight eyeballs on him. That helps the offensive line.”
The fear of Shedeur-to-Travis is the tide that lifts all boats on the CU offense, including the ones barricading the line of scrimmage. But Hudson also tips his cap toward Loadholt, the 6-foot-8 former Fountain-Fort Carson standout who practiced what he’s been preaching for more than a decade, having parlayed a stellar run at Oklahoma into seven years at tackle for the Minnesota Vikings.
“Those guys (on the Buffs line) have got a lot of experience and they’re impressionable,” Hudson said. “I mean, those guys that are playing for (Loadholt), they want to be him. So they’re going to listen.”
Seaton sports a 65.5 PFF grade through eight games as a true freshman, well within shouting distance of the 68.5 posted by his predecessor, Savion Washington, a year ago. He says his new coach’s message is as direct and logical as it is simple: You want to be like me? You want to do what I did? Then do as I say.
“Coach Phil, he never lets me get comfortable,” the Buffs left tackle said recently. “He always finds something that I can work on. So I feel like, for (him to do) that — that’s what I most appreciate.”
CU hasn’t just looked better up front under Loadholt. The Buffs’ counting stats look better, too. CU’s cut its almost actuarial sacks-surrendered total from ’23 down from 4.7 per game last season to 3.25 through eight games this fall — a drop of 31%.
“Loadholt is an intimidating figure that holds nothing back on his players,” Brock Huard, the former NFL QB and FOX Sports analyst, said. “Offensive line coaches are still the one species of coach out there in sports today that can coach like they did in previous generations. That is, if they have the credibility, presence and background to allow for hard coaching. He seems to be commanding that respect from his players.”
Last year, the Buffs’ offensive approach seemed to be all uppercuts and no jabs. Now CU’s average rushing gain on first and second down is up to 3.03 yards after a paltry 2.5 yard-per-tote clip in 2023. Running back Isaiah Augustave is a 6-foot-2 battering ram who’s getting 4.65 yards per attempt on first down and 4.1 on second down.
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When you’ve already got a QB who can convert on third-and-forever like it’s a layup, that’s one heck of a machine for opposing defenses to try to stop.
“(Loadholt), that’s my dawg. He played right tackle. His background is pretty sick, you know?” Seaton reflected. “He has the money that we’re all trying to get. So I feel like, me personally, I like listening to people who’ve done it.”
Seaton’s not the only kid who’s buying what Loadholt’s selling, either. Two of the Buffs’ 10 known high-school commitments as of this past Friday afternoon were offensive linemen — including 4-star tackle Chauncey Gooden out of Nashville.
Iron sharpens iron. Stack enough small miracles, that curtain only gets taller and tighter, more terrifying by the pound.
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